Thread: Dust Hood (not Spark Shield!) for small Angle Grinders?

Having seen numerous dusty fires in polishing shops when the sparks get a little bigger than normal or the operators push a bit harder than normal, I would not suggest it to anyone unless they really get their jollies from burning the flesh on their arms legs and hands.

Once the sparks/particles get into a forced airflow they heat up, just ike lumps of coke in a forge. If you were very lucky, you would melt the hosing before the vac unit catches. If the vac catches, you need to rip the cable out of the plug and hit it with an extinguisher within a couple of seconds or you loose the shop.

Dear Malb,

I'll take your word for it, but I was only wanting to use it on lumpy concrete and Spakfilla......

Tis the thought that counts, though!
Batpig.

I have one of these Hoverhoods I put on the 9". Its well made and works really well for grinding off high spots before laying tiles or floating floor. I have it hooked up to a Hilti dust extractor, and you can grind with virtually no dust.

http://www.situp.com.au/Hoverhood%20...%20Shroud.html

I noticed on the website they have one now for the 4"/5" more for corner's.

Think it was around $230ish.... for me it was a no brainer!!

Even 'planing' concrete, the wheel will generate sparks whenever it contacts aggregate, and the forced airflow will concentrate the sparks and heat in the vac tube and tend to melt it. Might not set it on fire, but dripping plastic sticks to skin and burns its way in. I would be very reluctant to use the concept for other than dust containment while disc sanding timber products.

try a dust muzzle., I have the 9" version and it works well. see http://cautionsp.com.au/productorder_start.asp

regards,

AD

I can't say for sure about angle grinders but when I sand some steels with my 4" makita belt sander using 40 grit paper there are a fair few sparks made but even at night I have never seen a single spark make it out of an open sander dust extraction nozzle. The sander air extract is pretty powerful so the theory of moving air making a spark burn brighter sounds a bit suspect to me. My guess is the moving air either burns the spark out even quicker, or it rapidly cools it below glow point. My bet is on the second one because when I hook up a 2" flexy hose to the sander that is connected to my DC the flexy hose slowly fills up with fine metal powder which suggests the spark has well and truly cooled down by the time it leaves the sander. The flexy hose gets to the same temperature (warm) whether I'm sanding metal or wood. But, angle grinders might be different.

Dear Guys,

Thanks so much to all four of you for responding.

Looks like there's nothing generic, inexpensive, and commonly available out there (like a Medallist/Sontax/Trojan sort of thing...) For the sake of future readers, in addition to the couple of links already forwarded, I will also add that Hilti sell one as well.

I can get my hands on an original Bosch accessory version (more like a black tin sheet thing, as opposed to cast alloy) to suit their 5" units, but I haven't grabbed it yet because it only fits Bosch, and I can't tell whether it will fit Greenys in addition to Blueys (the Blues start in the high $200's...), since the shop that has it has recently dropped Bosch.

Thanks again,
Batpig.